


there'll be no rest for the wicked (there's no hope for the weary)

by gayapplewhite



Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Future Fic, Government Conspiracy, Infertility, M/M, Multi, Revenge, Supervillains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 13:51:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15864903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayapplewhite/pseuds/gayapplewhite
Summary: “this time, something goes wrong. will gets thrown through a wall. will gets knocked out. the villain takes a brick fallen from the wall and smashes will’s head in.”or; what becomes of warren and layla after will is gone.





	there'll be no rest for the wicked (there's no hope for the weary)

**Author's Note:**

> anyway i wrote this but never published it for some reason so it's here now i guess. also keith is acid spit boy (he had a name tag). also warren and libby were sophomores when will and co were freshman, and penny, speed and lash were juniors. also ethan as a hacker and magenta as sky high-verse's edna mode is *kisses fingers* perfection.
> 
> the title of this fic comes from “no rest for the wicked” by lykke li. please kudos and comment if you enjoyed; it means a lot to me <3

warren had always thought he’d be different than his father. a hero, not a villain, using his fire powers to destroy robots, not using his mind to build them. he always thought he would use his fire powers like his mother, the superhero phoenix (or, as she was known to everyone else, bridgett peace. she’d never changed her maiden name. who would, he thinks, when their husband was in jail on four consecutive life sentences? he used to resent her, for giving up on his father, but now he understands. it was a means of survival).

now, as he holds his burning hands on the throat of a superhero named “freeze girl” ( ~~he tries not think about how they were friends once. about how they made out after their sophomore homecoming. about how people who know her call her libby and how she hates her full name and how she used to flick snowflakes at him during boring class periods and he’d send back sparks. he tries not to see the look of betrayal under her mask as she realizes exactly who he is.~~ ) it occurs to him that fate had other plans. 

//

 **it begins like this** : with a blaring alarm in a cheap apartment at eight am on a monday. warren rolls over, untangling his legs from will’s and gets up, turning off the alarm. he swipes a pair of clean-looking pants off the floor and puts them on, before joining layla in the kitchen. she’s sitting at the kitchen table, and her hands are wrapped around a cup of coffee, but it’s long cooled. warren pulls the mug out of her hands and presses a soft kiss to layla’s head before dumping the coffee down the sink. 

“hard night?” he asks as he pulls eggs out of the fridge. he slices green peppers and she nods. their senior year of high school, layla had lost a fight to the villain-of-the-year, and he’d strangled her until she was unconscious. will and warren had found her in time, and warren had burned him to a crisp after that ( ~~that was the first time he’d never had doubts about using his powers. sometimes he thinks about that~~ ), but layla still has nightmares. 

warren grabs cheese out of the freezer and makes two omelets. he puts chopped tomatoes in will’s, leftover from dinner last night, and puts two pieces of toast in the toaster for layla. “more coffee?” he asks her, and she shakes her head. she looks older than nineteen in that moment, the lines on her face deep and the bags under her eyes dark. 

“i’ll go wake will,” she says, standing up. a crooked smile crosses her face, and warren turns back to the stove. a moment later, he hears a shriek from the bedroom as layla tears the sheets off will, and smiles to himself. a moment later, will pads into the kitchen wearing one of warren’s shirts and pajama pants. layla follows suit. she’s wearing a tee shirt and underwear and fuzzy socks. 

warren grabs plates from the cabinets and plates the two omelets, before setting one in front of will. layla gets her toast and pulls peanut butter out of a cabinet and spreads it across the toast. they sit at the table in silence for a while, but it’s not an awkward kind of silence - it’s more comfortable than that. 

at least, it is until will glances at his watch and jumps, yelling, “oh shit!” he darts out of the room, yelling about how he has a nine am class, and warren and layla make eye contact and laugh to themselves. 

//

 **actually, it begins like this** : it is years later, and they are in a white room, with white walls, and bright lights, and layla sits on an examination table, and warren holds her hand. will holds her other hand. they do not move. a man comes in, and he holds a folder.

“what’s wrong?” layla asks. her voice is small, and warren warms his hand slightly in comfort. she looks small, and scared, and warren wants to protect her, but there are some problems you can’t burn away. 

“you have polyps in your uterus,” he says simply, and then tells her what it means. it means that her cells have grown too much, and that there are growths in her uterus. it means that she’s infertile, and there is no cure.

layla sobs in will’s arms all the way home. 

//

 **or maybe, it begins like this** : will and warren and layla are heroes (using the names “nettle” “ember” and “flyboy”); they're ready to fight, and they know each other’s moves like the back of their hand, they know each other better than they have ever known anyone else. they move in sync, but this time. this time. 

this time, something goes wrong. will gets thrown through a wall. will gets knocked out. the villain takes a brick fallen from the wall and smashes will’s head in. 

that’s what the coroner’s report says. 

layla strangles the villian with vines, and his body hangs from the ceiling above will, face blue from the lack of oxygen, and warren runs through the hole in the wall to will. 

will’s face is bloody, his head smashed into pieces against the floor, and warren screams, a long, keening wail of grief. layla follows warren to will, and she sobs over his body. warren burns, a funeral pyre for the not-yet-deceased.

their costumes are covered in his blood. the government cleans up the body. 

//

will’s body never comes back. they say it is because it was too destroyed to save. warren knows better. 

ethan had found as he’d grown older that while he loved his powers, they weren’t quite enough to put food on his table. so he’d turned to programming, and later hacking, and found he’d had quite the knack for it. he finds video footage of the government’s dissection of will’s body on a private government server a week after will passed. the video file is called “project_curiosity.mp4”.

the scientist explains that they had hired the villain to kill will, that they needed bodies of people with superpowers to dissect, and super strength and flight were fairly common, so it won’t be hard to find someone to replace him in the hero bracket. “you can’t control them,” the scientist says, right before he cuts into will’s body, “if you don’t know what makes them tick.”

the same scientist proudly brags about developing vitamins for hero supplies, inc that made female superheros infertile. “we don’t want them to reproduce,” he warns, “before we can control them.” layla lets out a sad, stifled weep and curls into warren’s shoulder.

warren leaves the room to vomit. he comes back feeling twenty years older. 

//

magenta makes them suits. she had found her calling in fashion, in making suits that survived anything. she’d been hired right out of high school by hero supplies, inc, due to her ability to make clothes that survived shape-shifting. 

warren’s outfit is red and black and fireproof. the armor looks like molten lava, with black fabric holding it all together. layla’s outfit is black, with neon green vines twisting their way up and down it. it has a gas mask over her mouth to protect her from warren’s smoke. it screams poison.

//

they take down the biggest skyscraper in the city the next week. people scream, running out of the building as it burns down. warren and layla walk away from the burning building, not bothering to hide. they want the world to know who they are. they want the government to know that they _made_ them. the stations all warn of two people, called “wildfire” and “poison”.

//

zach finds out who they are. of course he does. maybe ethan tells him (ethan’s never been good at keeping secrets, especially from his boyfriend), maybe he saw his roommate maj sewing their suits. maybe. maybe. maybe. in the end it doesn't matter. 

“don’t do this,” zach pleads. he’s caught warren as warren’s getting ready to leave ethan, zach and maj’s apartment after picking up his and layla’s suits from magenta (they’d needed patching up from the skyscraper's debris). “you know this isn’t what will would have wanted.”

warren glares at him. “well, will’s not here to tell us what he would want, is he?” he asks, and gets up to leave. he doesn’t have to stay and listen to this. zach grabs his arm, and warren can’t help it. he lets a bit of flame flare up, and zach scrambles away. it’s then that warren sees the look of pure fright on his face, and he realizes that he’s never seen that look of terror on any of his friend’s faces before. well. not until now, anyway. warren ignores the regret that’s flaring up in his chest, and leaves, slamming the door on his way out.

//

 **it ends like this** : warren, his hands over libby’s throat as she struggles to scream. layla, her vines strangling “rock boy” ( ~~warren tries not to think about how everyone who knows him calls him larry. how he's a cameraman for a local news station. about how he walked the stage as larry mason with will and layla and majenta and zach and ethan. about how he has a husband at home named keith who graduated with him and a baby.~~ ). it ends with tv static as every station goes dead because none of them know how to put a spin on this besides “this will end in our destruction”. they do not know how to say, “we have tempted the snake, and it has bitten us.”

//

 **or it ends like this** : libby stops breathing. larry goes limp, turning back into the scrawny man that he was before. warren and layla walk away, leaving the bodies behind. they destroy the facility will’s body was dissected in. they leave the scientist who dissected will alive with a warning to tell the government to never touch another innocent with superpowers again, or they will be back.

the government covers up their involvement, but the tendrils of project curiosity are slowly rescinded until the project is nothing at all. they have made a grave mistake, and they will not risk making it again, or at least not while wildfire and poison live. they try to hunt them down, but ethan hacks their software and destroys the files every time they get close.

after, warren and layla become urban legends. eat your vegetables or poison will get you. clean your room or wildfire will burn it down. listen to your parents or poison and wildfire will come for you and take you away. 

//

 **or, maybe, it ends like this** : warren and layla go home to their empty apartment, pour a glass of champagne, and drink to celebrate bringing down the institution that killed will. it is a victory, but not all victories are joyful.

they go to bed and hold each other, but it all somehow still feels hollow.


End file.
